Pioneer Data, In search of digital data... Options

[tedstryk]

Tomorrow I will be stopping by our library. Some material has come in, but I am not sure what it consists of. To make a long story short, it appears that, although the Saturn part seems to be listed in the NSSDC catalogue, other than the three Pionner ring images (one red/blue set and one red image alonge) and the Io set, the digital data is lost, save any scraps that can be recovered from various places. This material may contain some more images...tomorrow I will know. The good news is that after looking at the available digital sets, there isn't much if anything that can be pulled out of them that can't be saved by just cleaning up the prints of the other images.

[tedstryk]

Sadly, I have reached the end of the line, so to speak. I found a bit of digital data that, merged with analogue versions of the Pioneer 10 Ganymede image, I can make a "semi-digital" image. And I have the components to put three images (one r-b set, one lone red image) together. And, of course, I have the Pioneer 11 Io image. However, after inquiring to the NSSDC, PDS, and everywhere else I can think of, it seems that the Pioneer dataset was only preserved in print format. Fortunately, the prints are top notch - computing was limited then, but the Pioneer IPP was so limited that such computers did really well, based on comparing the digital sets I do have to print versions. But it is sad to see that there is no digital set. It is worse noting that Mariner 6-10 and other early data had to be rescued from decaying tapes, and Surveyor data transmission tapes were lost. Basically, in the 60s and early 70s, digital data (and even analogue data in its original form was considered an annoyance that would be done away with when film return and film-scanning spacecraft could be used).